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Student Voices(Ms. Lee Milea) *Pre-arrival

Pre-arrival Admission
Studying in the first grade of the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Keio University
Graduated fromYeouido Girls’ High School in 2012
Received lectures from Iee Jonguon Japanese Language Preparatory School
(Recorded as of March 2013)

Hello! My name is Iee Mire, and I am studying in the first grade of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Keio University. I feel happy every day, thanking my parents who allowed me to study in Japan. I am absolutely delighted to have been admitted to Keio University.
Almost one year has passed since I came to Japan and entered the university. At the beginning of enrollment, I wondered why the time was passing so quickly. In fact, the year has simply flown by. After having learned and experienced many things in this period, I realized that I have grown up. From the time of enrollment until now, the feeling that this is “My University” has gradually grown, and I am delighted!
After coming to Japan at the end of last March and completing the application for admission, I immediately became accustomed to life here, and spring passed rapidly away with the falling of the cherry blossom.
The examinations approached followed by the steamy summer season with high humidity. I visited and enjoyed many places despite the hot clammy summer. I feel that I had fun every day.

I visited China Town in Yokohama with my classmates on the Chinese language course and the teacher and ate Chinese cuisine. I also went to Yamanashi with my friends to eat grapes. Then I went for a 2-night /3-day trip with friends in the circle and had a lot of fun in the sea and ate a lot of delicious food. I had great times with OBs and OGs who had graduated from Keio University. The second picture shows a gathering at Tokyo Mita Club located on the ground floor of the Imperial Hotel. We sang the song “Young Blood” with our arms around each other. The third picture shows us listening to Rakugo (comic monologue) given by an OB of Keio University, where we had dinner together with OBs and OGs. The students of Keio University are filled with love for the alma mater. Our OBs and OGs are playing active roles in various fields. The following phrase was expressed in a letter given by OBs and OGs.
Though I am still in the first grade, I have already started to grow feelings for the alma mater.
We enjoyed student life with heart and soul during the hot summer, and then the summer holidays were over and we had a cool autumn. I spent student life in Hiyoshi Campus filled with beautiful maples of red and yellow and had good times at the school festival held in Mita Campus.

Then the winter came.
I participated in the 28th Japanese Language Speech Contest held in Keio University after passing the prior examination of a draft script and an interview. Then I was given an opportunity to deliver a speech in Mita Enzetsu-kan (Keio’s Public Speaking Hall), which is an important cultural site. Fortunately I was given an award for excellence and a gift. This was the most significant event for me in the whole of 2012, and I rounded the year off with feelings of great satisfaction and pleasure.

On the way to home after finishing lessons in Iee Jonguon Japanese Language School, which I attended during high school, I happened to meet a Japanese lady in a subway who had a very warm attitude towards Koreans. I chatted with her and she treated me like her own daughter. She is a really good-natured lady. She invited me to her Japanese home where I experienced Japanese-style New-Year celebrations for the first time. Neighbors living in the same building of her apartment got together in her room, and watched the end-of-year Red and White Singing Contest and the New-Year count-down ceremony on TV. All of us ate Soba, a type of Japanese noodles, and visited a shrine and bought a paper fortune. This was a great opportunity to experience the Japanese way of celebrating New Year. I also visited a family with whom I had stayed before and took food prepared for New Year. In writing of these events, I realize how much I have observed, felt, and experienced in 2012. I had good times and met good people in 2012 and I am filled with a sense of gratitude. I am satisfied with and actually quite proud of my achievements this year.

Finally, I would like to talk about where I am staying. I live in one of the international student dormitories run by Keio University. In a way, it is a miniature version of the world. Students of different nationalities come from many countries. For all that, everybody living in this dormitory knows about Korea. When I was a junior high school student, I met a foreigner in Japan who asked me, “Which city is Korea?” Nowadays, when I say I am Korean, people reply by saying “Aniyon Haseyo.” I am so pleased to see some of my friends introduce themselves in Korean even though I have not asked them to do so. I feel very proud of my country whenever I see Korean people playing active roles in the world and I am impressed by the popularity of the Republic of Korea rising day by day.

I realized the importance of family during my study in Japan. I also learned about the difficulty of earning money while working part time in Japan and how bothersome housekeeping is!

My professor told me the following story some time ago.
Going into a big sea, you may meet a whale. You may also become a whale one day depending on how you live. We should go out and extend our horizons and experience many things.
How we end up depends on how we spend our life. I have only just managed to break out of a small stream. Now I wish to swim hard in order to reach wider expanses and eventually become a whale in the decades to come.
Thank you so much for reading my text till the end. I hope to meet you in a big ocean in the future!

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